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From The Members: Why?

Here’s a message that I wanted to give to my fellow black atheists.

Why is it that we should be scared to show our faces and express our beliefs openly in the black community? Why is it that the word acceptance is just an illusion-like word conjured up by Webster in order to increase our vocabulary but have no substantial value in its worth to be brought upon into out fellow brother and sisters mind? Many times I have been based for my belief and having to also “blend in” to the populous in order not to offend them, but from my perception, their stubbornness is what deeply offends me. Everybody has a right to believe in what they want to believe in, but from what I have seen and, have gone through, that reality is false. From the dawn of time man has created gods for the idea of control in order to bring answers to questions that could not be answered, but thanks to modern day science, questions can finally be answered without someone saying, “It’s because of god that has happened?” I was raised in a Baptist church for a majority of my childhood and didn’t really enjoy going there from all the judges and cynical people who claimed to be saints but at the end of church go right back to how they were before as though the word “God” or the pastors preaching’s were never spoken in their presence. Many questions came to my head as a child when I was in the church and I have read the bible but let me tell you. A lot of stuff in there just doesn’t make any sence whatsoever. People use god as a defense mechanism when they have no intelligent way of explaining things thoroughly. Christians are easy to read about the Old Testament but not the history of the world. I would type more but I would like to get some feed back on this if it would not be a bother to you. I am not afraid to show my face cause a majority of the people I associate with and family already know about my beliefs. –Kessmine F.

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I wasnt directly ‘brought up’ in a religious environment (my mum and step-dad are non-believers despite their own parents involvement in the church (my step-dads father was a Vicar in the C of E)) but I did spend a lot of time with my fathers family at weekends, so i spent a fair bit of time in church.

I got out as quickly as i could though.

I’m fairly open about my beliefs, or lack thereof, with most of my circle except where aunties uncles and grandparents are concerned (although one or two are aware), partly out of respect for them and partly because I’ve heard of horror stories where people try to be open with their families and it backfires.

The way I see it:

Even though your relatives love you as family, their world is bound by a strict set of rules and these rules herald a spiritual balance.

Think for a minute about the laws of physics.

You know them to be true and you KNOW that nothing can refute them. Not only that, but you know that if anything did act against those laws they could produce catastrophic consequences.

Nobody has, as yet, produced anything close to the kind of proof you would need to change your opinions of those laws, and on top of that you can see nothing but good coming from the effect of the laws, except where people have tried to go against the laws and failed.

With respect to these people you see only death or damnation for them, past, present and future.

So, these laws are the fabric of your reality and you see no other way.

(Of course in reality the laws of physics, like every scientific principle, are largely seen as a very good theory that should be used as reference until something more accurate comes along…but I digress)

Now imagine your child (if you have one, or young relative if you haven’t) tells you that they don’t believe in such doctrine.

In your mind, bound by the laws which guide your every action, this would instantly place them with the damned.

Not only that but it destroys the balance you have grown to expect and rely on.

You’ll begin to question your own influence, or lack thereof, on their opinions.
You’ll ask yourself whether you want them to also drag you down in their eventual fall.
You’ll fear what the repercussions might be when they act in an ‘un-lawful’ way (as in against the laws of the world)

After that you just need a quote from Yoda to see where the violence and aggression comes from. (“Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate”)

==(I do have to say that this mostly relates to those less sound in mind. I have spoken to Christians and spiritualists (family members among them) who didn’t instantly turn to aggression but instead tried to gain an understanding of my opinions and accept that I have a different view.)==

What I would also say is that with respect to the black community, or rather the offspring of the slave trade (because Islam has been the major religion in Africa for almost as long as the Church has been in Europe); is that Christianity was taught to them in order to give them hope, and as proof that even through all the hardship and death their was a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you consider how powerful a message it must have been, how consoling it was for those slaves who survived the journey across the sea, all those who survived the meagre quality of life on the plantations, all those who fought for equality in nations where they were treated as less than household pets… then you might have an idea of how much black people (Afro-Caribbean and African-American) need that message in order to go on.

Because if it isn’t true, if it’s all lies, what does that mean?

What does it mean for the generations who stood their ground while they were mown down by oppression, by slavery? All by the nations they now call their own.

Christians are renowned for placing themselves on a pedestal and there’s a long way to fall if you’re not strong enough.

Most aren’t.

That’s why they believe.

So, when you say that you don’t, it’s not like arguing that the sky is in fact purple.